CUSTOMER RETENTION STATISTICS – The Ultimate Collection for Small Business



CUSTOMER RETENTION STATISTICS - The Ultimate Collection for Small Business

We’ve collected these customer retention statistics for small businesses from a variety of sources. Enjoy the list and see if any catch your attention that might be especially relevent to your company.

Last updated: October 16, 2016

CUSTOMER RETENTION STATISTICS

CUSTOMER RETENTION AND MARKETING

  • 80 percent of businesses surveyed rely on email marketing for customer retention.
  • 56 percent of survey respondents considered email marketing to be the most effective method of reaching customer retention goals.
  • 36 percent of U.S. retail professionals said organic search drives customer retention.
  • 43 percent of U.S. retail professionals said paid search drives customer retention.
  • 44 percent of U.S. retail professionals said social media drives customer retention.
  • 37 percent of U.S. retail professionals said retargeting drives customer retention.
  • 21 percent of U.S. retail professionals said affiliates drive customer retention.
  • 18 percent of U.S. retail professionals said referral marketing drives customer retention.
  • 8 percent of U.S. retail professionals said mobile marketing drives customer retention.

CUSTOMER RETENTION AND THE COST OF SALES

  • It costs 5 percent more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep a current one.
  • It costs 16x more to bring a new customer up to the same level as a current one.
  • 82 percent of companies agree that retention is cheaper to execute than acquisition.
  • A mere two percent increase in customer retention can lower costs by as much as 10 percent.

CUSTOMER RETENTION AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

  • 82 percent of consumers in the United States said they stopped doing business with a company due to a poor customer experience.
  • Companies lose 71 percent of consumers due to poor customer service.
  • 68 percent of customers leave you because they perceive you are indifferent to them.
  • 60 to 70 percent of customers will do business with a company again if it deals with a customer service issue fairly even if the result is not in their favor.
  • 47 percent of customers would take their business to a competitor within a day of experiencing poor customer service.
  • 66 percent of consumers who switched brands did so because of poor service.

CUSTOMER RETENTION AND YOUR BOTTOM LINE

  • The average repeat customer spends 67 percent more in months 31-36 of their relationship with a business than they do in months 0-6.
  • A five percent increase in customer retention can lead to an increase in profits of between 25 and 95 percent.
  • Lowering your customer churn rate by five percent can increase your profitability by 25 to 125 percent.
  • Repeat customers spend 33 percent more than new customers.
  • A 10 percent increase in customer retention levels results in a 30 percent increase in the value of the company.

Bottom Line

As you can see above, the impact of customer retention can be felt from your bottom line to your marketing tactics (e.g. SEO), cost of sales, and customer service. Click the links below for more insight into customer retention:

Retain Customers Photo via Shutterstock


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Matt Mansfield Matt Mansfield is the Tech Editor and SEO Manager at Small Business Trends where he is responsible for directing and writing many of the site’s product reviews, technology how-to’s, and lists of small business resources as well as increasing the reach of our content.

11 Reactions
  1. I think you need to give them a good reason to choose your product or service over the competition and you have to give them a good reason to stay. Sometimes, all you need to do is just go another mile and that will be enough to make them stay.

  2. So email marketing is still useful for customer retention eh? I was quite surprised for it is 2016.

  3. It’s always tough to keep everyone happy… thanks for sharing Matt 🙂